Remains of the Day: Omit needless words

Walter Isaacson and Simon & Schuster take Strunk & White’s classic maxim to heart with a new title for Steve Jobs’s biography, an inside trader tells all…to the court, and a popular iOS game crashes into schools. The remainders for Wednesday, July 6, 2011 aim to make every word tell.

It’s still eight months away, but Steve Jobs’s forthcoming biography has gotten a new title. Previously iSteve: The Book of Jobs, a moniker reportedly picked by Simon & Schuster’s PR folks, the Walter Isaacson-penned tome will now simply be called Steve Jobs. Simple, classic, and iconic—just like the man and his products. While the title change is being attributed to Isaacson and his family, we find it more than possible that the name was altered to prevent confusion among tween audiences.

Walter Shimoon, a senior director at components firm Flextronics International, pleaded guilty to charges that he passed inside information about Apple to hedge funds. Shimoon could serve up to 30 years in prison, where the closest he’s likely to get to Apple is probably reading Steve Jobs’s biography in the library.

Apple received a perplexing trademark last week for “280.” Mysterious, until you see that it’s actually for iOS’s Maps icon, which depicts Apple’s Cupertino campus at 1 Infinite Loop—a stone’s throw away from Interstate 280. Great, so now every time I want to give directions, I’ll have to say “Take the 280™ south…”

To keep classes engaged, physics teachers have turned to a surprising source—ticked-off avians. Yes, those Angry Birds are at it again, but this time they’re launching themselves into the minds of students. Metaphorically, of course. Meanwhile, biology teachers have found themselves having to explain why exactly pigs would steal bird eggs in the first place. (My suggestion? Omelette.)